The present invention relates to a photo flash device in general, and more particularly to a photo flash device having a movable reflector so as to permit the flash produced by the device to be either directed at the object being photographed, or to make so called "bounce-flashes," at the option of a user.
There are instances where direct illumination of the object to be photographed with flash light is not desirable. For this reason the "bounce-flash" technique was developed in which the light emitted by the photo flash device is directed not at the object to be photographed, but against a reflecting surface, for example, the ceiling of a room in which an object is to be photographed. The reflecting surface then reflects the light back upon the object and the illumination of the object is totally different with this technique that if the light had been directed at the object itself immediately and without being first "bounced" off the ceiling.
Photo flash devices are known which may utilize either of these techniques at the option of the user, and for this purpose provide a tiltable reflector head which is mounted in a rod or bar-shaped housing and which must be fully tilted out of the housing when bounce-flash is to be used. The trouble with this prior-art approach is that when the reflector is fully tilted out of the housing, the balance of the photo flash device is destroyed so that the device in toto tends to tilt. This is undesirable for the reason that it may lead to damage of the flash tube and/or of other components of the device.
Moreover, when the reflector head is tilted outwardly of the housing and rearwardly, upwardly in order to produce a bounce flash, the rather large reflector head is located in the immediate vicinity of the face of a user of the camera provided with the flash device. This tends to hinder the proper operation of the camera.
Finally, the prior art also has the power supply cable that leads to the reflector head, exposed so that there is a constant danger that damage might be caused to the cable by accidentally hooking the same over some object thus causing it to be torn loose.